Australia's universities are lifting their research game but failing to keep up with the rest of the world when it comes to academic reputation and faculty-student ratios, one of the world's most highly regarded university rankings has found.

The Australian National University was again Australia's highest-placed on the 2019 QS (Quacquarelli Symonds) University Rankings, but fell out of the top 20 to 24th on the list. Sydney University, the country's third-placed university after Melbourne, climbed from 50th to 42nd.

ANU has kept its top spot on the QS rankingsCredit:Andrew Meares

The University of NSW was steady at 45th, the University of Technology (UTS) climbed 16 spots to 160th, while the universities of Newcastle, Wollongong and Western Sydney all improved their positions.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology was the world's best university for a record-breaking seventh year, according to the rankings, which look at academic reputation, faculty-student ratios, citation numbers, employer reputation and international faculty and students.

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Australia again had five of its 37 universities in the top 50, and more institutions rose up the rankings than fell down. Three quarters improved their research citation numbers and about 64 per cent increased international student ratios.

But two thirds suffered on the academic reputation index, which surveys academics about the universities they believe to be the best.

Those that did boost their academic reputation included UTS, Wollongong and Western Sydney. QS research director Ben Sowter said Australian standards were not dropping; rather, everyone else was improving.

More than 90 per cent of Australian universities also fell on the student-faculty ratio index. The only three that improved on this scale were Macquarie University, the University of Newcastle and Charles Darwin University.

"Australia's [faculty-student ratio] has risen, but by a negligible amount as far as the average student is concerned," said Mr Sowter. "The average staff/student ratio at its universities remains about 16 students per faculty member.

"However, the global ratio has dropped, so it is the improvement made by other nations that cause Australia’s fall."

Mr Sowter said universities' best protection against a volatile ranking was a well-established reputation. The three Australian institutions that had stable scores were the universities of Sydney, Melbourne and Monash.

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"It seems that, as the rest of the world becomes increasingly competitive, having a truly global academic standing – one that has been cultivated over decades – will mitigate the trend of relative reputational decline for some time," he said.

There are many university rankings, but QS is one of the highest-profile. Its tables are studied by prospective local and international students, prospective staff, universities themselves and governments.

Russian and Malaysian universities showed the biggest improvement in the 12 months. But over the past four years, universities in Korea, Singapore, China and Hong Kong have shot up the rankings amid heavy investment from their governments.

Universities Australia chief executive designate Catriona Jackson said while the latest global rankings showed Australian universities were some of the world’s best, the university funding freeze risked future results.